Financial Independence-Retire Early(er) in Australia from the female perspective.

What has my second-gen FIRE child learned about frugality?

Right from when they were very small, my children have watched me buy in bulk when non-perishables have been on sale, then helped me lug them home and store them in towering piles in the pantry or watched me decant into smaller, more user-friendly containers.

When I was in San Gimignano in Italy in 2015, one of the souvenirs I bought was this olive oil tin. I knew I’d use it and I love it still. I buy 4L tins of olive oil from Aldi and simply decant into my olive oil ‘watering can’ when it runs dry. It’s a similar idea to the non-stick spatula* I bought last year in North Korea. A useful souvenir is a good souvenir!

So what has my 24-year-old son done?

Ryan24 is half-way through his Remedial Massage course at RMIT. When massage oil was on the book list for this year, he bought in bulk. He’s bought smaller bottles to decant the oil into for when he goes to classes. Of course, as any second-gen FIRE frugal person would do, he made sure that the unit price for the bulk oil was far cheaper than for 1L bottles.

I’m very proud.

I just hope I don’t ever mistake it for a wine cask one dark night!

(This last photo has nothing to do with the post. I simply thought that some people might want to see the spatula of choice for people in North Korea.)

When I saw the massage oil picture I was SURE the story was going to involve him buying massage oil for putting in your olive oil tin. That reflects poorly on my expectations for 24 year old men – having been one myself!

Fortunately, you’ve done well and it turned out to be a success story!

I like your thinking!
I’m not posting on this blog-site any more. I’m now at https://burningdesireforfire.com
(Just in case you want to keep up with the goss – you never know what kitchen utensil I might buy next!!!)